Stephen Snowden Leaves Kames in Fixed Income Shakeup

Personnel changes in Kames Capital's fixed income team continue, with four managers, including co-head of fixed income Stephen Snowden, departing on Friday

David Brenchley 30 November, 2018 | 6:02PM
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Four members of Kames Capital’s fixed income team, including co-head of fixed income Stephen Snowden and head of high yield David Ennett have left the company, it was announced on Friday.

In addition, fund managers Stephen Baines and Juan Valenzuela have also left to pursue new opportunities.

The news comes just over a year after David Roberts and Philip Milburn left to join Liontrust in August 2017, leaving the team thin on the ground.

Snowden, who had been at the firm since 2011, had been a named manager on the Morningstar Silver-rated Kames Investment Grade Bond and Kames Investment Grade Global Bond funds. Co-manager Euan McNeil will now be assisted by Grace Le on both offerings.

Meanwhile, Adrian Hull, previously co-head of fixed income alongside Snowden, will now take sole responsibility for the team.

Kames also named a number of other co-managers to funds previously co-run by the departees.

The changes will have no impact on the funds’ investment process, strategy or direction, the company said. Kames has “a long standing tried and tested investment process across all asset classes”, said Stephen Jones, Kames chief investment officer.

“We operate in a very competitive market, one where we have seen a good degree of change recently across the whole sector,” he added. “We are not immune and… it allows us to promote from within and refresh and recruit where appropriate and necessary.”

Analyst View

The instability in the team is an area of concern for Louise Babin, senior manager research analyst at Morningstar, and is something the team is keen to discuss with senior management.

“There’s been a significant level of turnover in the fixed income team over the last three years, across all levels of seniority and fixed income sub sectors,” Babin said.

“The high yield desk in particular now looks fairly sparse and lacking in experience so an external hire could be on the cards in due course.”

But Kames runs a co-portfolio manager structure, Babin said, and for the funds where the leavers had responsibility, the incumbent managers remain. “Their new co-managers are generally more junior members of the team who have been promoted.”

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Securities Mentioned in Article

Security NamePriceChange (%)Morningstar
Rating
Aegon Investment Grade Bond GBP B Acc203.93 GBP0.01Rating
Aegon Investment Grd Glbl Bd B Inc USD11.96 USD-0.19Rating

About Author

David Brenchley

David Brenchley  is a Reporter for Morningstar.co.uk

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